Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit
Scrolls from the Dead Sea Exhibition
From the discovery of the earliest known recorded biblical scrolls and related artifacts in the caves above the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea Scrolls have held an aura of mystery and swirled with controversies. Project Judaica Foundation, in partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Israel government agency in charge of all the archeological digs and artifacts throughout Israel, brought the Dead Sea Scrolls to the public's view with five world-class exhibitions held around the globe including the Vatican.
The Director of the IAA, the indefatigable General Amir Drori (Ret.) and the Assistant Director, Jacob Fisch, approached this Foundation to determine whether it would be possible to create and display an exhibition of selected fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Having just completed another amazing exhibition at the Library, "From the Ends of the Earth," the stage was set for this astounding show.
The Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, was immediately interested in the exhibition of this scope and agreed to exhibit the Dead Sea Scroll fragments. Twelve of the most interesting scroll fragments became the core of the exhibition and were surrounded with related artifacts including jars in which the scrolls were found after being preserved by the low humidity of the region. Tefillim boxes and straps, sandals believed to belong to the scribes, coins from the period, various pottery of the period from the area Written on leather over 2,000 years ago in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, these scrolls are the earliest known biblical manuscripts. They include portions of all of the five Books of Moses as well as the writings by the Essenes sect.
The IAA's rich materials were complimented by special pieces from the Library of Congress' vast holding from the Hebraic, Map, and other collections. The Library's world-class in-house staff of conservators, curators and scholars became deeply engaged in applying their skills to choose the items from their divisions. The Library's additions included one of the few extant Gutenberg bibles and some of the earliest known maps which oriented the public to the sites and the region. The maps also gave insight into the views of the early pioneering cartographers of the Fifteenth Century and how they perceived the lands and events of the Biblical era.
Early incunabula (the earliest known printed books) and their later mechanically printed books along with the various commentaries through the centuries all keyed to the passages from the scroll fragments on display. These included early writings of Pliny, Philo and Josephus among others allowing comparisons of texts as well as historical contexts.
Each venue faced the very difficult issue of lighting the exhibit without endangering the highly sensitive scroll fragments which could be damaged irrevocably by exposure to bright light. The skilled staff at the Library of Congress created a low intensity lighting system which was activated only when a visitor stood before the scroll fragment case automatically switching off as the visitor moved away.
The design staff, augmented by a talented consultant, recreated the feelings of the period with wall coverings emulating the stone of the caves above the Dead Sea and the pink stones of Jerusalem making the setting truly unforgettable. Visitors were dazzled by being able to actually see and read the 2,000 year old texts which so many knew from present-day study of their own bibles by all faiths. Large color photographs within the exhibition made visitors feel as if they were actually entering the very area of the caves at Qumran.
To help visitors who wanted to learn the complexities of the story of the scrolls meanings, an audio guide was presented for use thus making the entire exhibition totally visitor friendly regardless of level of knowledge.
This exhibition had the largest attendance of any exhibition in over the 215 year history of the Library of Congress. The crowds had to be controlled by time-stamped tickets which still resulted in long lines sometime two to three long blocks long.
This opening coincided with the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April, 1993. As a consequence, many heads of state including the President and Foreign Minister of Israel along with twenty other heads of state toured the exhibition along with the staffs and members of both the House of Representatives and Senate, Supreme Court and Executive Branch lead by the White House.
Since this exhibit elicited such support from donors and great public interest, arrangements were then made to travel the fragments to the New York Public Library where equal interest resulted. The San Francisco de Young Fine Arts Museum was the third venue where extensive collateral public programming was developed for school children, bible study groups and the general public. Time tickets were implemented as well to manage the huge response from the public.
In the meanwhile, Jacob Fisch, of the IAA, quietly began discussions with Father Leonard Boyle, the Director of the Vatican Library to determine interest in displaying the fragments at the Sistine Gallery (Salone Sistine) at the Vatican. On the June 30, 1994, with great and dignified ceremony, Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Sodano, presiding, the exhibition of Scrolls from the Dead Sea was opened for the public. There were 18 cardinals and 28 ranking archbishops present. Jacob Fisch, Mark Talisman, President of Project Judaica and Mrs. Barbro Osher of San Francisco, CA spoke after the Secretary of State and Father Boyle.
Mr. Talisman presented the highly regarded and valued facsimile of the Washington Haggadah to the Secretary of State of the Vatican and Father Leonard Boyle to be placed in the Vatican Library.
The timing of this exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls was carefully planned to coincide with the arrival of the very first Ambassador from Israel to the Vatican which happily allowed both sides to celebrate through this ground-breaking exhibition. Displayed adjacent to the Sistine Chapel, eighteen thousand visitors a day saw the Vatican exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls!
Finally, upon leaving the Vatican, the Scroll fragments returned to the Israel Museum along with the various objects added to the exhibit by the Vatican Museum including early Torah scrolls over a thousand years old, and many other texts and illustrations and maps. This special exhibit augmented the Shrine of the Book Isaiah exhibit for several months at the Israel Museum for the large and enthusiastic public in Israel.
This exhibition would have not been possible without the generosity and abiding moral support of Bernard and Barbro Osher and the Osher Foundation of San Francisco. Phyllis Cook, Director of the San Francisco Jewish Federation Endowment was the person most responsible to provide encouragement when no other options appeared to be available. A special thank you for Jacob Fisch unquenchable thirst for creative and exciting opportunities to bring Israel rich archaeological collections to the public's view
死海文書
1947年,一個牧童在死海西北端約旦河谷的克蘭地區洞穴的大甕中發現大量羊皮古代文書,後來引發一些調查隊去調查尋找,找到了更多的資料.考古學家進行大規模的挖掘和搜索,一共獲得古卷六百餘卷及成千上萬的文物殘片,以放射性同位素測得其年代於公元前167至233年之間,是世界現存的最古老的<<聖經>>抄本.
<<死海文書>>全古卷卷帙浩繁,共用希伯來文、亞蘭文、希臘文、拉丁文四種文字寫成,內容可分爲兩大部分.第一部分是希伯來的<<聖經>>、<<次經>>、<<僞經>>的抄本,第二部分是猶太教的激進禁慾主義教派——亞森尼派的一個"克蘭教團"的教規,可分爲<<訓導手冊>>、<<聖經註釋卷>>、<<戰爭卷>>、<<感恩卷>>、<<聖殿卷>>五部分.它的內容與聖經有部分相異,還有很後來才放入的文獻和一些像是"理論"的文獻.除了現今可以對照確定的部分外,到底是當時的惡作劇或是某教派教徒的著作,難以確定.基督教矢口否認克蘭教團和基督教有任何牽連,不過也有傳說該教團是耶穌的表兄(施洗者)約翰所主持的,甚或是耶穌自己創立的,或者是耶穌的敵對者等等.
以色列史所認定的祖先是亞伯拉罕.亞伯拉罕極得神的眷愛,可是神許諾給他兒子的事情卻一直未見兌現,於是亞伯拉罕和婢女生下一子以斯馬利.後來亞伯拉罕的元配夫人(亞伯拉罕的異母妹妹)終於受孕,產下一子以掃,於是以斯馬利和其母被驅逐出門.天使(可能是米迦勒)照顧他們不致餓死曠野,後來以斯馬利成了阿拉伯人的祖先.以掃的次子雅各生性狡猾,被其兄憎恨而逃奔母舅家,途中在曠野與天使(拉菲爾)摔角獲勝,自此改名爲以色列(因他與人與神角力都獲勝).從雅各起,以色列家漸漸的茁壯,在巴勒斯坦的迦南地方成爲一望族.後來由於饑荒之故,舉族遷入埃及.
在埃及,以色列族日益龐大,終於引致埃及人的嫉恨和奴役.在摩西率領之下,以色列全族四十萬人離開埃及回到巴勒斯坦建國.十二支族建成十二邦國,直至掃羅時代才成爲統一王國.這王國僅僅經歷掃羅、大衛和所羅門三任國王的統治即於紀元前10世紀分裂,南國以猶太族爲首故稱猶太國,北國仍稱以色列國.200年後,北國被亞述所滅,接着南國於100年後被巴比倫所滅,精英分子多被虜至這兩國.以色列人的流亡史宣告開始.在以色列人流亡的過程中,<<聖經>>的各部分以口頭形式保存和演變.舊約經書和猶太傳說受到了許多異族文化和傳說的影響.
在羅馬統治下的巴勒斯坦,耶穌於公元前4年誕生(據說當初教會是要把耶穌誕生的那一年定爲公元元年,但是算錯了四年,以後只好將錯就錯了).身爲猶太人,耶穌打破了許多猶太教傳統,於是被猶太教領袖們綁赴羅馬總督府要求處死.後來耶穌的門徒們遍行各地傳教,在極艱苦的壓迫之下日益茁壯,直到被羅馬帝國接納爲國教.
現代的基督教就是從希伯來人信仰的猶太教演變而來,而當時同時產生的伊斯蘭教則和基督教相互影響.基督教早期是一元神論,如舊約<<以賽亞書>>所記:"我創造了光,也創造了暗.我創造和平,也創造災禍."意即神兼具宇宙的好與壞,善與惡俱出自神.後來吸收了波斯襖教(Zoroastrism)的宇宙二元觀,纔將世上的惡加在墮天的魔王撒旦頭上.基督教到達了成功的頂點之際,也開始了徹底的腐化.羅馬帝國崩潰後,羅馬教廷成了歐洲唯一的大型政治勢力,壓迫、蒐括、欺騙黎民無所不爲,最後導致了近代的宗教革命.
宗教革命後產生的新基督教派統稱新教(抗議宗),現存的主要勢力有浸信會、長老會、路德會和英國國教等.舊教則包括羅馬教廷轄下的教會(天主教)和以君士坦丁堡爲根據地、盛行東歐、俄羅斯的東正教.不過新教舊教都是廣義的基督教.
格諾西斯主義(Gnosticism)是在基督教崛起時於地中海沿岸萌芽的宗教思想,主張宇宙是善與惡、光與暗兩大勢力的戰場.有不少宗教教派廣義上來說都是格諾西斯主義的,甚至包括摩尼教(Manicheism)的前身拜火教(Zoroastrianism).
但是狹義的格諾西斯主義不然,其教義激進大膽,倡言現世是惡魔(或邪神)所造,俗世之所以充斥着無盡的不公不義和苦難就是這個原因.因此,爲了徹底否定創造神(惡魔)的成就,狹義格諾西斯主義走上了絕對的禁慾主義,以破壞惡魔的"秩序",格諾西斯(Gnosis)是至高神,在希臘語中原意爲"爲拯救人類而授予的知識".只有認識了至高神的存在才能獲得救贖.爲此信徒必須努力發覺封印於內心的"光"(與至高神合一的聖靈),與至高神相通之後才能達到創世惡魔.除了摩尼教(公元三世紀在伊朗創立,拜火教、基督教和佛教的綜合體)外,和它近似的亞森尼派算是信奉這一類思想的教派.
摩尼教聖典中的<<巨人之書>>中,有着不同於<<舊約創世紀>>的大洪水的記載:二百名被稱爲"古利格利"[Grigori,神之子,意思是"看守者"(Watchers)、"睜目觀看者"、"不眠者"等,有如希臘神話中的百眼巨人]的天使見神所造的人類女子美貌,便與之交合、產下了邪惡狂亂的巨人族(Nephilim).憤怒的神便指示諾亞造好方舟逃命,然後以大洪水消滅了地上的萬物,並將古利格利打入天牢.
<<以諾書>>就是由<<以諾預言>>和<<巨人之書>>組成,而<<死海文書>>由包括了<<以諾書>>和<<舊約聖經>>的一部分組成.
中文譯本：
權威的古猶太禮法：
直到第8日的日落時分，我們認爲每個人的屍體都是不潔的。
不管屍體還有沒有肉，它都必須被認作已經追隨了死亡或兇手的法律。
已構成婚姻的人們，他們都是聖種之子，這樣，上帝的選民（譯者注：即猶太人）是神聖的。
上帝選民的聖潔的動物，不能讓它們與其他種類交配。上帝選民的衣物，不能讓它與其他材料交織。上帝選民的土地和葡萄園，不能播種其他的東西。
因爲上帝選民是神聖的，他是最神聖的亞倫之子（譯者注：亞倫，摩西之兄，猶太教第一祭司長）。
但你知道一些僧侶與俗人結合，他們互相附着，僧侶和腐壞的女人在一起，褻瀆了僧侶神聖的種子。直到亞倫的兒子門必須（譯者注：經文卷軸至此破殘）
《死海文書》中英文全文對照（曆法卷軸）
中文譯本：
在7月12日Jedaiah降臨的第一日
在8月25日Abiah降臨的第二日
Duqah是8月12日Miyamin降臨之周的第三日
在9月24誒Jaqim降臨之周的第三日
Duquh是9月11日Shekania降臨之周的第四日
在10月23日Immer降臨之周的第五日
Duqah是11月9日Shbeab降臨之周的第六日
在11月22日Hehezkel降臨的第六日
Duqah是11月9日Peahah降臨之周的安息日
在12月22日Joiarib降臨之周的第一日
Duqah是12月9日Delaiah降臨之周的第二日
轉出第二年：第一個月，在1月20日Malakiah降臨之周的第二日
Duqah是1月7日Harim降臨之周的第三日
在2月20日Jeshua降臨之周的第四日
Duqah是2月7日Haqqos降臨之周的第五日
在3月19日Huppah降臨之周的第五日
Duqah是（譯者注：卷軸破殘）Happisses降臨之周的第六日
（譯者注：曆法卷軸至此破殘）